Contemporary Composition Perspectives | Prof. Simon Mawhinney 20/02/25
Date of Event: Thursday, 20th February 2025
For the next lecture in our Contemporary Composition Perspectives series we are delighted to welcome Prof. Simon Mawhinney of Queen's University Belfast. He will be performing and discussing his substantial piano work Transitional Objects. All are welcome: the lecture takes place in the Concert Hall, East Quad, TU Dublin on Thursday February 20th 4pm-6pm.
Transitional Objects is one of Simon Mawhinney’s most vivid musical expressions: a long-form composition for piano that ranges from moments of intimacy and delicacy to passages that are monumental, if not monolithic. The music is compelling and immediate, with a narrative of almost cinematic scope, and often exists in a multi-layered state that embraces polymodality and supple polyrhythms. Amidst colourful sonorities and resonances, memories abound: the post-Boulezian, the post-spectral, the abstract euphoria of Feldman; and also fragmentary dreams of jazz, the cantillations and traditional musics of the world.
Simon Mawhinney
Simon Mawhinney was born in Co. Down, Northern Ireland and was educated at the universities of Oxford, York and Queen’s, Belfast, where he was appointed Lecturer in Music in June 2006. His compositions have been performed throughout the world by an international range of leading performers and ensembles and have received a wide range of awards and prizes, including the Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize. His music has been commissioned by several major international music festivals and has been broadcast on numerous occasions. Recent compositions include ‘Hunshigo’ (2005 rev.2007), a 45-minute work for violin and piano; ‘Nendrum Haykal’ for solo viola d’amore, which was commissioned by Garth Knox and has recently been performed in Paris, Berlin and Venice; and ‘Perseid’, which was commissioned by Ensemble Recherche. He is currently working on a large-scale work for bass flute and electronics, for the Icelandic virtuoso, Kolbeinn Bjarnason, and a concertante work for viola d’amore. In late 2008 Altarus Records released a CD of his music for violin and piano, performed by Darragh Morgan and Mary Dullea.
Piano performance forms an integral part of Mawhinney’s work. Described by the Irish Times as an ‘ardent’ performer, he has a wide repertoire ranging from Bach to Boulez and has given performances which have received critical acclaim throughout Europe. His performances of contemporary music have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3.